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Secrecy

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Secrecy is the practice of hiding information from certain individuals or groups who do not have the "need to know", perhaps while sharing it with other individuals. That which is kept hidden is known as the secret.

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78-438: Secrecy is often controversial, depending on the content or nature of the secret, the group or people keeping the secret, and the motivation for secrecy. Secrecy by government entities is often decried as excessive or in promotion of poor operation; excessive revelation of information on individuals can conflict with virtues of privacy and confidentiality . It is often contrasted with social transparency . Secrecy can exist in

156-532: A company that monetizes data related to a user's location. Other international cases are similar to the Accuweather case. In 2017, a leaky API inside the McDelivery App exposed private data, which consisted of home addresses, of 2.2 million users. In the wake of these types of scandals, many large American technology companies such as Google, Apple, and Facebook have been subjected to hearings and pressure under

234-490: A limited time monopoly on its use, though patent applications are initially secret. Secret societies use secrecy as a way to attract members by creating a sense of importance. Shell companies may be used to launder money from criminal activity, to finance terrorism, or to evade taxes. Registers of beneficial ownership aim at fighting corporate secrecy in that sense. Other laws require organizations to keep certain information secret, such as medical records ( HIPAA in

312-423: A mobility database. The study further shows that these constraints hold even when the resolution of the dataset is low. Therefore, even coarse or blurred datasets confer little privacy protection. Several methods to protect user privacy in location-based services have been proposed, including the use of anonymizing servers and blurring of information. Methods to quantify privacy have also been proposed, to calculate

390-475: A much greater volume and degree of harassment than would otherwise be possible. Revenge porn may lead to misogynist or homophobic harassment, such as in the suicide of Amanda Todd and the suicide of Tyler Clementi . When someone's physical location or other sensitive information is leaked over the Internet via doxxing , harassment may escalate to direct physical harm such as stalking or swatting . Despite

468-461: A need by many candidates to control various online privacy settings in addition to controlling their online reputations, the conjunction of which has led to legal suits against both social media sites and US employers. Selfies are popular today. A search for photos with the hashtag #selfie retrieves over 23 million results on Instagram and 51 million with the hashtag #me. However, due to modern corporate and governmental surveillance, this may pose

546-539: A number of different ways: encoding or encryption (where mathematical and technical strategies are used to hide messages), true secrecy (where restrictions are put upon those who take part of the message, such as through government security classification ) and obfuscation , where secrets are hidden in plain sight behind complex idiosyncratic language ( jargon ) or steganography . Another classification proposed by Claude Shannon in 1948 reads that there are three systems of secrecy within communication: Animals conceal

624-467: A prisoner had no choice but to conform to the prison's rules. As technology has advanced, the way in which privacy is protected and violated has changed with it. In the case of some technologies, such as the printing press or the Internet , the increased ability to share information can lead to new ways in which privacy can be breached. It is generally agreed that the first publication advocating privacy in

702-519: A risk to privacy. In a research study which takes a sample size of 3763, researchers found that for users posting selfies on social media, women generally have greater concerns over privacy than men, and that users' privacy concerns inversely predict their selfie behavior and activity. An invasion of someone's privacy may be widely and quickly disseminated over the Internet. When social media sites and other online communities fail to invest in content moderation , an invasion of privacy can expose people to

780-403: A secret. Also, the other may insist that one answer the question. Nearly 2500 years ago, Sophocles wrote: 'Do nothing secretly; for Time sees and hears all things, and discloses all.'. Gautama Siddhartha said: "Three things cannot long stay hidden: the sun , the moon and the truth .". Privacy Privacy ( UK : / ˈ p r ɪ v ə s i / , US : / ˈ p r aɪ -/ )

858-470: A specified time, in violation of a news embargo . Leaks are often made by employees of an organization who happened to have access to interesting information but who are not officially authorized to disclose it to the press . They may believe that doing so is in the public interest due to the need for speedy publication, because it otherwise would not have been able to be made public, or to rally opinion to their side of an internal debate. This type of leak

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936-748: A subject of the laws, as is true outside of elections) in selecting their government servants. It is argued that secrecy is impermissible as against the public in the area of elections where the government gets all of its power and taxing authority. In any event, permissible secrecy varies significantly with the context involved. Organizations, ranging from multi-national for profit corporations to nonprofit charities , keep secrets for competitive advantage , to meet legal requirements, or, in some cases, to conceal nefarious behavior. New products under development, unique manufacturing techniques, or simply lists of customers are types of information protected by trade secret laws. Research on corporate secrecy has studied

1014-551: A warrant to arrest Timothy Ivory Carpenter on multiple charges, and the Supreme Court ruled that the warrantless search of cell phone records violated the Fourth Amendment, citing that the Fourth Amendment protects "reasonable expectations of privacy" and that information sent to third parties still falls under data that can be included under "reasonable expectations of privacy". Beyond law enforcement, many interactions between

1092-490: Is Joseph Conrad 's short story " The Secret Sharer ". Governments often attempt to conceal information from other governments and the public. These state secrets can include weapon designs, military plans, diplomatic negotiation tactics, and secrets obtained illicitly from others (" intelligence "). Most nations have some form of Official Secrets Act (the Espionage Act in the U.S.) and classify material according to

1170-530: Is common; as former White House advisor Sidney Souers advised a young scholar in 1957, "there are no leaks in Washington, only plants." On the other hand, leaks can sometimes be made simply as self-promotion, to elevate the leaker as a person of importance. Leaks can be intentional or unintentional. A leaker may be doing the journalist a personal favor (possibly in exchange for future cooperation), or simply wishes to disseminate secret information in order to affect

1248-536: Is derived from the Latin word and concept of ‘ privatus ’, which referred to things set apart from what is public; personal and belonging to oneself, and not to the state. Literally, ‘ privatus ’ is the past participle of the Latin verb ‘ privere ’ meaning ‘to be deprived of’. The concept of privacy has been explored and discussed by numerous philosophers throughout history. Privacy has historical roots in ancient Greek philosophical discussions. The most well-known of these

1326-412: Is designed to maximize the impact of the announcement. It might be considered an element of political " spin ", or news management . Some people who leak information to the media are seeking to manipulate coverage. Cloaking information in secrecy may make it seem more valuable to journalists, and anonymity reduces the ability of others to cross-check or discredit the information. Some leaks are made in

1404-844: Is exacerbated by deanonymization research indicating that personal traits such as sexual orientation, race, religious and political views, personality, or intelligence can be inferred based on a wide variety of digital footprints , such as samples of text, browsing logs, or Facebook Likes. Intrusions of social media privacy are known to affect employment in the United States. Microsoft reports that 75 percent of U.S. recruiters and human-resource professionals now do online research about candidates, often using information provided by search engines, social-networking sites, photo/video-sharing sites, personal web sites and blogs, and Twitter . They also report that 70 percent of U.S. recruiters have rejected candidates based on internet information. This has created

1482-401: Is not kept secret. Information hiding is a design principle in much software engineering . It is considered easier to verify software reliability if one can be sure that different parts of the program can only access (and therefore depend on) a known limited amount of information. Military secrecy is the concealing of information about martial affairs that is purposely not made available to

1560-660: Is the civil law . Privacy in Canada was first addressed through the Privacy Act , a 1985 piece of legislation applicable to personal information held by government institutions. The provinces and territories would later follow suit with their own legislation. Generally, the purposes of said legislation are to provide individuals rights to access personal information; to have inaccurate personal information corrected; and to prevent unauthorized collection, use, and disclosure of personal information. In terms of regulating personal information in

1638-430: Is the ability of an individual or group to seclude themselves or information about themselves, and thereby express themselves selectively. The domain of privacy partially overlaps with security , which can include the concepts of appropriate use and protection of information. Privacy may also take the form of bodily integrity . Throughout history, there have been various conceptions of privacy. Most cultures acknowledge

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1716-568: Is typically applied in the criminal law context. In Quebec, individuals' privacy is safeguarded by articles 3 and 35 to 41 of the Civil Code of Quebec as well as by s. 5 of the Charter of human rights and freedoms . Political leak A news leak is the unsanctioned release of confidential information to news media . It can also be the premature publication of information by a news outlet, of information that it has agreed not to release before

1794-537: The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation is a privacy protection agreement for the members of that organization. Approaches to privacy can, broadly, be divided into two categories: free market or consumer protection . One example of the free market approach is to be found in the voluntary OECD Guidelines on the Protection of Privacy and Transborder Flows of Personal Data. The principles reflected in

1872-653: The Constitution of South Africa says that "everyone has a right to privacy"; and the Constitution of the Republic of Korea says "the privacy of no citizen shall be infringed." The Italian Constitution also defines the right to privacy. Among most countries whose constitutions do not explicitly describe privacy rights, court decisions have interpreted their constitutions to intend to give privacy rights. Many countries have broad privacy laws outside their constitutions, including Australia's Privacy Act 1988 , Argentina's Law for

1950-590: The Cyber Civil Rights Initiative and the Electronic Frontier Foundation argue that addressing the new privacy harms introduced by the Internet requires both technological improvements to encryption and anonymity as well as societal efforts such as legal regulations to restrict corporate and government power. While the Internet began as a government and academic effort up through the 1980s, private corporations began to enclose

2028-499: The Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Amendment (Data Retention) Act 2015 made a distinction between collecting the contents of messages sent between users and the metadata surrounding those messages. Most countries give citizens rights to privacy in their constitutions. Representative examples of this include the Constitution of Brazil , which says "the privacy, private life, honor and image of people are inviolable";

2106-460: The landmark legal case of United States v. Reynolds , decided by the Supreme Court in 1953. Excessive secrecy is often cited as a source of much human conflict. One may have to lie in order to hold a secret, which might lead to psychological repercussions. The alternative, declining to answer when asked something, may suggest the answer and may therefore not always be suitable for keeping

2184-413: The subverted expectations of users who share information online without expecting it to be stored and retained indefinitely. Phenomena such as revenge porn and deepfakes are not merely individual because they require both the ability to obtain images without someone's consent as well as the social and economic infrastructure to disseminate that content widely. Therefore, privacy advocacy groups such as

2262-544: The Australian Government via the Privacy Amendment (Enhancing Privacy Protection) Bill 2012. In 2015, the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Amendment (Data Retention) Act 2015 was passed, to some controversy over its human rights implications and the role of media. Canada is a federal state whose provinces and territories abide by the common law save the province of Quebec whose legal tradition

2340-657: The Office of the Privacy Commissioner and Canadian academics. In the absence of a statutory private right of action absent an OPC investigation, the common law torts of intrusion upon seclusion and public disclosure of private facts, as well as the Civil Code of Quebec may be brought for an infringement or violation of privacy. Privacy is also protected under ss. 7 and 8 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms which

2418-745: The Protection of Personal Data of 2000, Canada's 2000 Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act , and Japan's 2003 Personal Information Protection Law. Beyond national privacy laws, there are international privacy agreements. The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights says "No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with [their] privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon [their] honor and reputation." The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development published its Privacy Guidelines in 1980. The European Union's 1995 Data Protection Directive guides privacy protection in Europe. The 2004 Privacy Framework by

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2496-409: The U.S. Freedom of Information Act and sunshine laws . Government officials sometimes leak information they are supposed to keep secret. ( For a recent (2005) example, see Plame affair . ) Secrecy in elections is a growing issue, particularly secrecy of vote counts on computerized vote counting machines. While voting, citizens are acting in a unique sovereign or "owner" capacity (instead of being

2574-600: The U.S. legislative system. In 2011, US Senator Al Franken wrote an open letter to Steve Jobs , noting the ability of iPhones and iPads to record and store users' locations in unencrypted files. Apple claimed this was an unintentional software bug , but Justin Brookman of the Center for Democracy and Technology directly challenged that portrayal, stating "I'm glad that they are fixing what they call bugs, but I take exception with their strong denial that they track users." In 2021,

2652-490: The U.S. state of Arizona found in a court case that Google misled its users and stored the location of users regardless of their location settings. The Internet has become a significant medium for advertising, with digital marketing making up approximately half of the global ad spending in 2019. While websites are still able to sell advertising space without tracking, including via contextual advertising , digital ad brokers such as Facebook and Google have instead encouraged

2730-421: The U.S.), or financial reports that are under preparation (to limit insider trading ). Europe has particularly strict laws about database privacy. Preservation of secrets is one of the goals of information security . Techniques used include physical security and cryptography . The latter depends on the secrecy of cryptographic keys . Many believe that security technology can be more effective if it itself

2808-496: The United States was the 1890 article by Samuel Warren and Louis Brandeis , "The Right to Privacy", and that it was written mainly in response to the increase in newspapers and photographs made possible by printing technologies. In 1948, 1984 , written by George Orwell , was published. A classic dystopian novel, 1984 describes the life of Winston Smith in 1984, located in Oceania, a totalitarian state. The all-controlling Party,

2886-590: The already existing privacy requirements that applied to telecommunications providers (under Part 13 of the Telecommunications Act 1997 ), and confidentiality requirements that already applied to banking, legal and patient / doctor relationships. In 2008 the Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) conducted a review of Australian privacy law and produced a report titled "For Your Information". Recommendations were taken up and implemented by

2964-541: The bill due to its provisions for warrantless breaches of privacy, stating "I don't want to see our children victimized again by losing privacy rights." Even where these laws have been passed despite privacy concerns, they have not demonstrated a reduction in online harassment. When the Korea Communications Commission introduced a registration system for online commenters in 2007, they reported that malicious comments only decreased by 0.9%, and in 2011 it

3042-481: The cloud was not necessarily a form of evidence. Riley v. California evidently became a landmark case, protecting the digital protection of citizen's privacy when confronted with the police. A recent notable occurrence of the conflict between law enforcement and a citizen in terms of digital privacy has been in the 2018 case, Carpenter v. United States (585 U.S. ____). In this case, the FBI used cell phone records without

3120-428: The computer networks which underlie the Internet introduce such a wide range of novel security concerns, the discussion of privacy on the Internet is often conflated with security . Indeed, many entities such as corporations involved in the surveillance economy inculcate a security-focused conceptualization of privacy which reduces their obligations to uphold privacy into a matter of regulatory compliance , while at

3198-447: The current state of the value of individuals' privacy of online social networking show the following results: "first, adults seem to be more concerned about potential privacy threats than younger users; second, policy makers should be alarmed by a large part of users who underestimate risks of their information privacy on OSNs; third, in the case of using OSNs and its services, traditional one-dimensional privacy approaches fall short". This

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3276-490: The debate regarding privacy from a physical sense, how the government controls a person's body (i.e. Roe v. Wade ) and other activities such as wiretapping and photography. As important records became digitized, Westin argued that personal data was becoming too accessible and that a person should have complete jurisdiction over their data, laying the foundation for the modern discussion of privacy. New technologies can also create new ways to gather private information. In 2001,

3354-476: The effect of substantially disrupting the orderly operation of a school." Increasingly, mobile devices facilitate location tracking . This creates user privacy problems. A user's location and preferences constitute personal information , and their improper use violates that user's privacy. A recent MIT study by de Montjoye et al. showed that four spatio-temporal points constituting approximate places and times are enough to uniquely identify 95% of 1.5M people in

3432-472: The equilibrium between the benefit of obtaining accurate location information and the risks of breaching an individual's privacy. There have been scandals regarding location privacy. One instance was the scandal concerning AccuWeather , where it was revealed that AccuWeather was selling locational data. This consisted of a user's locational data, even if they opted out within Accuweather, which tracked users' location. Accuweather sold this data to Reveal Mobile,

3510-551: The extent of their contribution to human wellbeing, or necessary utility. Hegel’s notions were modified by prominent 19th century English philosopher John Stuart Mill . Mill’s essay On Liberty (1859) argued for the importance of protecting individual liberty against the tyranny of the majority and the interference of the state. His views emphasized the right of privacy as essential for personal development and self-expression. Discussions surrounding surveillance coincided with philosophical ideas on privacy. Jeremy Bentham developed

3588-469: The factors supporting secret organizations. In particular, scholars in economics and management have paid attention to the way firms participating in cartels work together to maintain secrecy and conceal their activities from antitrust authorities. The diversity of the participants (in terms of age and size of the firms) influences their ability to coordinate to avoid being detected. The patent system encourages inventors to publish information in exchange for

3666-410: The family with outsiders or sometimes even within the family. Many "family secrets" are maintained by using a mutually agreed-upon construct (an official family story) when speaking with outside members. Agreement to maintain the secret is often coerced through "shaming" and reference to family honor . The information may even be something as trivial as a recipe . Secrets are sometimes kept to provide

3744-581: The general public and hence to any enemy, in order to gain an advantage or to not reveal a weakness, to avoid embarrassment , or to help in propaganda efforts. Most military secrets are tactical in nature, such as the strengths and weaknesses of weapon systems , tactics , training methods, plans, and the number and location of specific weapons. Some secrets involve information in broader areas, such as secure communications, cryptography , intelligence operations, and cooperation with third parties. US Government rights in regard to military secrecy were uphold in

3822-531: The government and citizens have been revealed either lawfully or unlawfully, specifically through whistleblowers. One notable example is Edward Snowden , who released multiple operations related to the mass surveillance operations of the National Security Agency (NSA), where it was discovered that the NSA continues to breach the security of millions of people, mainly through mass surveillance programs whether it

3900-471: The government, are able to monitor a user's data and decide what is allowed to be said online through their censorship policies, ultimately for monetary purposes. In the 1960s, people began to consider how changes in technology were bringing changes in the concept of privacy. Vance Packard 's The Naked Society was a popular book on privacy from that era and led US discourse on privacy at that time. In addition, Alan Westin 's Privacy and Freedom shifted

3978-561: The guidelines, free of legislative interference, are analyzed in an article putting them into perspective with concepts of the GDPR put into law later in the European Union. In a consumer protection approach, in contrast, it is claimed that individuals may not have the time or knowledge to make informed choices, or may not have reasonable alternatives available. In support of this view, Jensen and Potts showed that most privacy policies are above

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4056-564: The hardware and software of the Internet in the 1990s, and now most Internet infrastructure is owned and managed by for-profit corporations. As a result, the ability of governments to protect their citizens' privacy is largely restricted to industrial policy , instituting controls on corporations that handle communications or personal data . Privacy regulations are often further constrained to only protect specific demographics such as children, or specific industries such as credit card bureaus. Several online social network sites (OSNs) are among

4134-461: The legal case Kyllo v. United States (533 U.S. 27) determined that the use of thermal imaging devices that can reveal previously unknown information without a warrant constitutes a violation of privacy. In 2019, after developing a corporate rivalry in competing voice-recognition software, Apple and Amazon required employees to listen to intimate moments and faithfully transcribe the contents. Police and citizens often conflict on what degree

4212-491: The level of protection needed (hence the term " classified information "). An individual needs a security clearance for access and other protection methods, such as keeping documents in a safe , are stipulated. Few people dispute the desirability of keeping Critical Nuclear Weapon Design Information secret, but many believe government secrecy to be excessive and too often employed for political purposes. Many countries have laws that attempt to limit government secrecy, such as

4290-603: The location of their den or nest from predators . Squirrels bury nuts, hiding them, and they try to remember their locations later. Humans attempt to consciously conceal aspects of themselves from others due to shame , or from fear of violence, rejection, harassment, loss of acceptance , or loss of employment . Humans may also attempt to conceal aspects of their own self which they are not capable of incorporating psychologically into their conscious being. Families sometimes maintain " family secrets ", obliging family members never to discuss disagreeable issues concerning

4368-486: The main source of concern for many mobile users, especially with the rise of privacy scandals such as the Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal . Apple has received some reactions for features that prohibit advertisers from tracking a user's data without their consent. Google attempted to introduce an alternative to cookies named FLoC which it claimed reduced the privacy harms, but it later retracted

4446-408: The news. The latter type of leak is often made anonymously. Sometimes partial information is released to the media off the record in advance of a press release to "prepare" the press or the public for the official announcement. This may also be intended to allow journalists more time to prepare more extensive coverage, which can then be published immediately after the official release. This technique

4524-480: The open; for example, politicians who (whether inadvertently or otherwise) disclose classified or confidential information while speaking to the press. Leaks can have strong consequences. President Richard M. Nixon was enraged by the existence of leaks, and according to his former staffer William Safire , that rage coupled with the president's lifelong disdain of the press set the environment that led to Nixon's downfall. Most immediately, fear of further leaks after

4602-404: The party in power led by Big Brother, is able to control power through mass surveillance and limited freedom of speech and thought. George Orwell provides commentary on the negative effects of totalitarianism , particularly on privacy and censorship . Parallels have been drawn between 1984 and modern censorship and privacy, a notable example being that large social media companies, rather than

4680-504: The phenomenon known as the Panoptic effect through his 1791 architectural design of a prison called Panopticon . The phenomenon explored the possibility of surveillance as a general awareness of being watched that could never be proven at any particular moment. French philosopher Michel Foucault (1926-1984) concluded that the possibility of surveillance in the instance of the Panopticon meant

4758-423: The pleasure of surprise. This includes keeping secret about a surprise party , not telling spoilers of a story, and avoiding exposure of a magic trick. Keeping one’s strategy secret   – is important in many aspects of game theory . In anthropology secret sharing is one way for people to establish traditional relations with other people. A commonly used narrative that describes this kind of behavior

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4836-515: The police can intrude a citizen's digital privacy. For instance, in 2012, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously in United States v. Jones (565 U.S. 400), in the case of Antoine Jones who was arrested of drug possession using a GPS tracker on his car that was placed without a warrant, that warrantless tracking infringes the Fourth Amendment. The Supreme Court also justified that there is some "reasonable expectation of privacy" in transportation since

4914-546: The political sphere, philosophers hold differing views on the right of private judgment. German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831) makes the distinction between moralität , which refers to an individual’s private judgment, and sittlichkeit , pertaining to one’s rights and obligations as defined by an existing corporate order. On the contrary, Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832), an English philosopher, interpreted law as an invasion of privacy. His theory of utilitarianism argued that legal actions should be judged by

4992-432: The practice of behavioral advertising , providing code snippets used by website owners to track their users via HTTP cookies . This tracking data is also sold to other third parties as part of the mass surveillance industry . Since the introduction of mobile phones, data brokers have also been planted within apps, resulting in a $ 350 billion digital industry especially focused on mobile devices. Digital privacy has become

5070-406: The private sector, the federal Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act ("PIPEDA") is enforceable in all jurisdictions unless a substantially similar provision has been enacted on the provincial level. However, inter-provincial or international information transfers still engage PIPEDA. PIPEDA has gone through two law overhaul efforts in 2021 and 2023 with the involvement of

5148-531: The proposal due to antitrust probes and analyses that contradicted their claims of privacy. The ability to do online inquiries about individuals has expanded dramatically over the last decade. Importantly, directly observed behavior, such as browsing logs, search queries, or contents of a public Facebook profile, can be automatically processed to infer secondary information about an individual, such as sexual orientation, political and religious views, race, substance use, intelligence, and personality. In Australia,

5226-558: The reading level of the average person. The Privacy Act 1988 is administered by the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner. The initial introduction of privacy law in 1998 extended to the public sector, specifically to Federal government departments, under the Information Privacy Principles. State government agencies can also be subject to state based privacy legislation. This built upon

5304-475: The reasonable expectation of privacy had already been established under Griswold v. Connecticut (1965). The Supreme Court also further clarified that the Fourth Amendment did not only pertain to physical instances of intrusion but also digital instances, and thus United States v. Jones became a landmark case. In 2014, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously in Riley v. California (573 U.S. 373), where David Leon Riley

5382-431: The right of individuals to keep aspects of their personal lives out of the public domain. The right to be free from unauthorized invasions of privacy by governments, corporations, or individuals is enshrined in the privacy laws of many countries and, in some instances, their constitutions. With the rise of technology, the debate regarding privacy has expanded from a bodily sense to include a digital sense. In most countries,

5460-453: The right to digital privacy is considered an extension of the original right to privacy , and many countries have passed acts that further protect digital privacy from public and private entities. There are multiple techniques to invade privacy, which may be employed by corporations or governments for profit or political reasons. Conversely, in order to protect privacy, people may employ encryption or anonymity measures. The word privacy

5538-403: The same time lobbying to minimize those regulatory requirements. The Internet's effect on privacy includes all of the ways that computational technology and the entities that control it can subvert the privacy expectations of their users . In particular, the right to be forgotten is motivated by both the computational ability to store and search through massive amounts of data as well as

5616-445: The social contract laid the groundwork for modern conceptions of individual rights, including the right to privacy. In his Second Treatise of Civil Government (1689), Locke argued that a man is entitled to his own self through one’s natural rights of life, liberty, and property. He believed that the government was responsible for protecting these rights so individuals were guaranteed private spaces to practice personal activities. In

5694-548: The top 10 most visited websites globally. Facebook for example, as of August 2015, was the largest social-networking site, with nearly 2.7 billion members, who upload over 4.75 billion pieces of content daily. While Twitter is significantly smaller with 316 million registered users, the US Library of Congress recently announced that it will be acquiring and permanently storing the entire archive of public Twitter posts since 2006. A review and evaluation of scholarly work regarding

5772-497: The way breaches of privacy can magnify online harassment, online harassment is often used as a justification to curtail freedom of speech , by removing the expectation of privacy via anonymity , or by enabling law enforcement to invade privacy without a search warrant . In the wake of Amanda Todd's death, the Canadian parliament proposed a motion purporting to stop bullying, but Todd's mother herself gave testimony to parliament rejecting

5850-704: Was Aristotle 's distinction between two spheres of life: the public sphere of the polis , associated with political life, and the private sphere of the oikos , associated with domestic life. Privacy is valued along with other basic necessities of life in the Jewish deutero-canonical Book of Sirach . Islam's holy text, the Qur'an, states the following regarding privacy: ‘Do not spy on one another’ (49:12); ‘Do not enter any houses except your own homes unless you are sure of their occupants' consent’ (24:27). English philosopher John Locke ’s (1632-1704) writings on natural rights and

5928-433: Was arrested after he was pulled over for driving on expired license tags when the police searched his phone and discovered that he was tied to a shooting, that searching a citizen's phone without a warrant was an unreasonable search, a violation of the Fourth Amendment. The Supreme Court concluded that the cell phones contained personal information different from trivial items, and went beyond to state that information stored on

6006-410: Was collecting great amounts of data through third party private companies, hacking into other embassies or frameworks of international countries, and various breaches of data, which prompted a culture shock and stirred international debate related to digital privacy. The Internet and technologies built on it enable new forms of social interactions at increasingly faster speeds and larger scales. Because

6084-546: Was repealed. A subsequent analysis found that the set of users who posted the most comments actually increased the number of "aggressive expressions" when forced to use their real name. In the US, while federal law only prohibits online harassment based on protected characteristics such as gender and race, individual states have expanded the definition of harassment to further curtail speech: Florida's definition of online harassment includes "any use of data or computer software" that "Has

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